Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park

Located on the University of Maryland’s flagship campus in College Park, Maryland, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center combines student productions with professional companies. It features a wide variety of music, dance, lectures and plays; only the theatrical productions are listed here.

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center has an alternative location called the Milkboy Arthouse, on Route 1 (Baltimore Ave.)

Fuse, by Suzanne Creedon is a dance work that dissects the juxtaposition of minimality and maximality.

But in polar moments of anger and stress,
The room is disgusting,
The room is a mess.
I haven’t found an in-between, “Sometimes I shut my eyes,
A room with walls fills the darkness.
My current state decides the fate
Of the surroundings that besiege me.

In calmer times the walls are bare.
Nothing fills the space,
Nothing’s in the air.
and I wonder what feeling would cause that scene.”

Hapa
by Jenna Gerdsen

Pain and labor lie beneath the pleasurable, paradisiacal landscape of Hawaii. This new play weaves the author’s own upbringing in Hawaii with the island-state’s imperialist history and tourist based economy.

Unspoken Stories at Clarice Smith, Feb 9

The Taratibu Youth Association (TYA) celebrated Black History Month telling the unspoken stories of perseverance, resistance and freedom. TYA uses song, poetry, dance and music to tell the stories of perseverance by Anarcha, Betsy and Lucy, slave youth that underwent multiple surgeries by James Marion Simms, without anesthesia; the South African resistance against apartheid, the resistance of color and class in Brazil; to the struggles for freedom of African Americans.

Opera New Work Reading at Clarice Smith, Feb 15

The New Work Reading is the premiere performance of the winning piece of the Third Annual UMD Opera Composition Contest. The UMD School of Music’s Maryland Opera Studio and The Clarice’s Artist Partner Program established the UMD Opera Composition Contest in 2016 as part of their ongoing dedication to cultivating and performing new work that addresses socially relevant themes.

Silencio Blanco presents Pescador at Clarice Smith, Feb 16-17

Silencio Blanco’s silent, colorless puppets are charged with capturing humanity and giving voice to the voiceless. Returning to The Clarice after a moving creation residency and sold-out performances in 2017, this deeply empathetic company presents Pescador, an intimate experience that is dedicated to the lives of Chilean fishermen who face nature’s overwhelming magnificence while navigating a lonely existence to support those they love. In this most transparent of installations, the tender manipulation of the austere puppets crafts a narrative that allows us to view the beauty and struggle of a fisherman’s labor.

TDPS’s Fearless New Play Festival is a three-day celebration of new scripts in development. The festival will kick off with a panel speech from a keynote playwright of national renown. After a week of workshops, participants will present: (1) a staged reading of the keynote playwright’s newest play, (2) staged readings of new ten-minute plays by current students, and (3) a showcase of new short plays by alumni, followed by a closing night celebration.

Hamlet is knee-deep in a personal and political quagmire. His father, the king, has been murdered by his uncle Claudius, who has hastily married his sister-in-law to assume the throne. Seeking to avenge his father’s murder, Hamlet sets off a chain of events resulting in death, destruction and a notable absence of justice.

But the politics and scandal in Shakespeare’s classic tragedy are nothing compared to the political discord and global uncertainty of today. This student-driven, devised theater piece, adapted from the Bard’s tale, imagines a new cast of greedy, divisive leaders—and a new generation to challenge them and liberate themselves.

Kreativity Open Mic at Clarice Smith, Mar 1

Join the Kreators of the Kreativity Diversity Troupe for an open mic night, full of music, dance and spoken word.

Want to try out your own performance chops? Show up and sign up! Just looking for a night of entertainment from some of the most talented students in the metro area? Simply take a seat and enjoy the show.

Interested in learning more about Kreativity? Email kreativity.troupe@gmail.com and like them on Facebook!

Fearless New Play Festival at Clarice Smith, Mar 7-9

TDPS’s Fearless New Play Festival is a three-day celebration of new scripts in development. The festival will kick off with a panel speech from a keynote playwright of national renown. After a week of workshops, participants will present: (1) a staged reading of the keynote playwright’s newest play, (2) staged readings of new ten-minute plays by current students, and (3) a showcase of new short plays by alumni, followed by a closing night celebration.

Kreativity Open Mic at Clarice Smith, Apr 5

Join the Kreators of the Kreativity Diversity Troupe for an open mic night, full of music, dance and spoken word.

Want to try out your own performance chops? Show up and sign up! Just looking for a night of entertainment from some of the most talented students in the metro area? Simply take a seat and enjoy the show.

Interested in learning more about Kreativity? Email kreativity.troupe@gmail.com and like them on Facebook!

The Maryland Opera Studio juxtaposes two of Weill’s earliest works for the stage — Zaubernacht (1922) and Mahagonny Songspiel(1927). An enchanting work about two small children whose toys come to life, Zaubernacht (1922) also features a dance portion that will be performed by TDPS students. Mahagonny Songspiel (1927) is a scenic cantata set in a fictitious American town and marks the beginning of Weill’s collaboration with Bertolt Brecht.

This original theater piece follows two souls who are repeatedly reincarnated in Black women’s bodies during feminist movements of the past, present and future. As these embodied souls reconnect with one another across three distinct time periods, they struggle to reconcile the realities of their race, gender and sexuality within societies that seek to deny their humanity.

The Maryland Opera Studio presents Weill’s Street Scene, a work that brilliantly combines elements of opera and musical theater and that is widely acknowledged as one of the composer’s masterpieces. Set in a crowded tenement in 1940s New York City, the opera portrays life among a diverse group of working-class immigrants and the climactic events of one sweltering summer day. Based on a story by Elmer Rice with lyrics by Langston Hughes, Street Scene addresses social justice issues, race and the complexity of human relationships.

Maryland Day at Clarice Smith, Apr 27, 10am

Explore the creativity of Terps and the local community on Maryland Day! This annual campus-wide open house features artistic and creative performances, experiences and activities at The Clarice, across the University of Maryland campus and at the MilkBoy+ArtHouse venue on Baltimore Avenue. Bring your family and your friends for a day of fun and frolic!

First-year Maryland Opera Studio (MOS) students demonstrate their talent in this showcase featuring duet scenes from a wide operatic repertory. To keep the focus on beautiful, pure sounds and vivid acting, the performance is accompanied only by piano and minimal props.

MOS is dedicated to the future of opera. Preparing the next generation of great singers and offering performances ranging from the classic repertoire to provocative new works, MOS is building audiences and advancing the art that sustains them.

In this sprawling and heartfelt coming-of-age story, Heidi Holland grows up before our eyes. Starting out as a bright, idealistic college student of the 1960s, the world around her rapidly changes. With feminist guiding principles, she strives to build a fulfilling life and is forced to confront, through her work, friendship and relationships, the true cost of “having it all.” From celebrated playwright Wendy Wasserstein, this endearingly funny play is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, newly resonant for a generation experiencing feminism through the lens of #MeToo and #TimesUp. “Resonates today as strongly, and at times as painfully, as [it] did when Wendy Wasserstein’s most celebrated play stormed Broadway in 1989.” – The New York Times

Andrew Schneider’s After at Clarice Smith, May 10-11

“Hallucinatory. Psychotropic. Miraculous” (The New York Times). OBIE award-winning Andrew Schneider’s technical theater masterpiece examines in micro-detail the consuming and agonizing last burst of human thought before entering the afterlife. AFTER commands mind-bending light and sound effects, and pairs them with adept physical performances riddled with pathos, humor and intelligence. This sensitive inner monologue delves into the individual’s consciousness with spellbinding machinations that engage all the senses to construct a poignant clarification of where the human experience stops, how it gets there and what comes after.

Peter and the Wolf at Clarice Smith, June 24

In this family-friendly performance, members of the National Orchestral Institute perform Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and give their own imaginative musical interpretations of beloved children’s books.

The National Orchestral Institute + Festival brings together aspiring orchestral musicians from across the country for a month of dynamic music-making and professional exploration. Chosen by a rigorous, cross-country audition process, these young artists present passionate and awe-inspiring performances of adventuresome repertoire at The Clarice and in the community.